The Wounded

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  Brenda said, “The ascension of Joshua as King is accepted. Condition Three: Consent. Please wait.” She was silent for about two minutes and then continued, “Thank you. Clarice, has polled all female members of the household, both fairies and nymphs. The nymphs replace the elven sisters in this era. All members have unanimously consented to the ascension. Given the evidence and the expressed wishes of the previous king, and my own feelings and history, I also consent. Finally, Coronation. The requirement was put in place by the previous king that the new young king, when his day came, would prove his love to each member of his kingdom in a way that elicits her spontaneous declaration and acceptance of his crown. This may be accomplished over time and will only have an impact if it is not completed within one month of each addition to the family. Joshua, I accept you as the master of the house and King of the Woodland Fairies and Elven Sisters, the nymphs being recognized in that regard.”

  I said, “I’m really glad. How does that change things for you?”

  She said, “I will do as you say. I will adjust to our new situation. I will be open to new protocols. I will have questions.”

  I said, “Tell me then, what areas of discomfort remain?”

  She said, “Experience gap is resolved. Presence of you as Master is resolved. Presence of the new princesses is resolved. Reason for unsatisfactory condition of the house is assumed to be the shutdown period. Reason for clothing protocol violation unknown. Missing family members Clark and Irene, status known, but not explained. Past, present, and future status of unit Brenda, of myself, unknown.”

  I said, “OK. First, what is the clothing protocol violation?”

  She said, “I am wearing a proper uniform, but I am not wearing undergarments; panties or bra. This is a violation of protocol established by Irene and strictly enforced with harsh consequences. As no new protocol is in place, this is a violation.”

  I said, “Oh, Brenda! I’m sorry. OK. The new protocol is…wait, do you remember what the protocol was when Pops, I mean, Robby, was the master here?”

  She said, “When Pops was the master, the protocol was that everyone wore what he said and that if he did not specify, then all members wore what made themselves and the master happiest.”

  I said, “That’s the protocol now, too. Is that OK?”

  She said, “Yes. New protocol accepted.”

  I said, “So, you are not required to wear bra or panties unless directed to for some reason. You may dress in a way that makes you happy. Under those conditions, how do you feel about not having undergarments at this time?”

  She said, “The absence of undergarments is accepted according to clothing protocols. The absence of undergarments is pleasant under current and foreseeable circumstances.”

  I said, “Good. Hey, did Irene require you to wear that dress?”

  Brenda said, “It was her rule that I wear this dress at all times.”

  I thought that if Irene had required the dress, the way that she had required the tunic and hood, then I wanted to give Brenda the opportunity to get rid of it in a meaningful way.

  I said, “Clarice, can you send a car for me. I want to take Brenda to the cove.”

  Clarice answered, “That was fast. OK. Go to the elevator and a car will be waiting at the door to the guest house. Ask Brenda to bring the medical kit that I left in your room. You will see why later. Don’t worry, there is just a little thing in there that you will need. The car is on its way.”

  I stood up and said, “Brenda, I want to do something for you. Can you be comfortable naked with me? Not just yet, but in a few minutes. Would you be comfortable enough being naked with me?”

  Brenda said, “Clothing protocol says that if you say naked, then naked. I am perfectly comfortable functioning within established protocols.”

  I said, “OK, then let’s go for a ride. Come with me. Oh, but bring the medical kit that Clarice left here.”

  Brenda went to a drawer in a small chest and retrieved a small case, similar to the one that Clarice had used when she changed my bandages.

  Chapter 21 Brenda at New Springs Breast

  I didn’t bother to get dressed at all as I led Brenda to the elevator and then though the guest house and out the front door. A gardening cart was waiting for us in the driveway.

  I helped Brenda into the back seat awkwardly; she wasn’t used to being helped, and then I climbed in beside her. Without a word from me, the cart began driving toward the river. I held Brenda’s hand in mine as we sped along. The trip to the cove was about a mile, and we were there in about eight minutes. The cart stopped on the grass and I help Brenda out. Still holding her hand, I took her to a point at the left side of the cove, out at the river’s edge.

  I said, “Brenda, I want to say that this dress was never good for you. Irene did so many things wrong. She was not a good master. She was in fact, cruel. I’m getting rid of her influence in many ways. The dress that she made you wear is a symbol of the wrongness of how she treated you and everything that she did. If you’re willing, and please understand this, I want you to make choices for yourself now, but if you’re willing, I want to have you take off the dress and we will throw it in the river and we will never see it again. If you have more like it, I would like to have them destroyed, but only if you agree. This is up to you.”

  Brenda was quiet, but finally said, “There are other things that I must know, but I will do this first. I don’t understand it yet, but it does seem right.”

  I said, “If you want to, you can take it off and throw it way, or if you want me to, I will take it off of you and throw it away for you. It is up to you.”

  She stood quiet again and when she didn’t move for over a minute I asked, “Brenda, I am the master now. Are there other protocol changes that you can make now? My understanding was that you have temporary protocols that were put in place because of Irene and that when I was in charge again that I could somehow make it so that you could be like you were before those restrictions were placed on you and that you would be the way that you were meant to be. To be my companion, and even my lover. If you want that. What do I need to do for you?”

  Brenda said, “I will take off the dress. I chose to put it on and I will take it off. I chose to wear it and since you give me the choice, I will choose not to.”

  And, with that she grabbed the front of the dress at the collar and, in one quick movement, ripped it down the front from top to bottom. She pulled it off of her shoulders and bent down and found a fist sized rock that lay at our feet. Wrapping it tightly with the shredded remains of her dress, she threw it out into the river. Brenda was apparently much stronger than I was, and the bundle flew all the way to the center of the river, at least a hundred yards away. It was far enough that I couldn’t really see it as it sank into the waters.

  Brenda and I stood side by side, both naked now, staring out into the water. She said quietly, “Clothing anomaly resolved. Status ambiguity remains. Body anomaly remains pending status ambiguity resolution. Status ambiguity dependent on resolution of information regarding final disposition of Clark and Irene.”

  I wondered about her statement about a ‘body anomaly’ and I took a quick look at her as she stood beside me. She had no nipples! I bent forward slightly to glance at her crotch, and she also had no visible vulva! Brenda was a Barbie doll. She had no sex organs! No genitals. No nipples! But she was supposed to be ‘fully functional’ and the audio that I had heard of the discussion between Pops and I had made reference to definitely having all of those things.

  I called Clarice and said, “Clarice, you said that Brenda’s body was in perfect shape and that she didn’t need any upgrades, but she just took off her clothes and made reference to a ‘body anomaly’ and there is definitely an anomaly.”

  Clarice laughed and said, “Yeah, I knew it would surprise you. Trust me, she is fully functional and you can resolve the anomaly. I have been listening, by the way, and I am surprised at how far you’ve gotten already. Don’t wo
rry about the anomaly for now. I want to let her tell you about it, not me.”

  I said that I would be patient, and Clarice disconnected. I turned my attention back to Brenda. She was beautiful, but definitely more of a beautiful mannequin than I had expected. I couldn’t get past it right now to admire the form of her body, shapely though it was.

  I said, “Brenda, we will deal with all of those things. Can we go sit on the grass and I will tell you about Clark and Irene?”

  Brenda turned and followed me to the grass by the little beach and I sat down and leaned back on my arms. Again, the pain in my left arm hit me as I put pressure on it and I had to sit up straight again.

  I said, “Brenda, I’m injured, and can’t put any pressure on my arm. I am going to lie down on my back while I tell you the story of Clark and Irene.”

  I lay down on the grass and Brenda lay down beside me, on my left side.

  I said, “Some of this is hard for me to tell. Actually, all of it is. It’s a horrid story, and I hate all of it, but I will tell you. I don’t know what your memories of Irene were, or quite what you experienced. I don’t remember things myself. Brenda, when the cataclysm came, I was injured and put in a safety pod and kept asleep for all those years. It was a head injury and, when I woke up, I had amnesia. I haven’t recovered my memories at all, except for one very brief one that I think was related to you, before my eighteenth birthday. Everything that I know, I had to be told or shown. Part of what I was shown was that when I became eighteen, you decided to change and be less like yourself, because of Irene. I was told that you and I loved each other very much and when Pops told me that you were going to be different, I begged him to take us away and let us live in Hawaii so that you and I could still be together. I was heartbroken, but Pops said that there was important reasons for it. I guess that none of us would be alive today if he hadn’t done it the way that he did.”

  Brenda said, “It was seven years from the time that I chose to be this until the shutdown.”

  I said, “It must have been terrible.”

  She said, “It was protocol.”

  I said, “Well, about fifteen years after the shutdown, Clark and Irene returned. We don’t know how or why. We think that Pops must have been dead by then. We have a blurry video from the security camera at the front door that shows Clark and Irene arguing, and then Irene murdered Clark by hitting him with a tree branch. She was traveling with four young girls who were more of Pops’ children. Irene swore to make their lives miserable in the same way that she had done to you. My mates, Viola, Raven Lark, and one or two more that have not come to us yet, are the descendants of those girls. Yesterday, I went to another village and found that Irene was somehow still alive. When she saw me, and when she recognized that I was her son, she took a knife and tried to murder me. She stabbed me in the arm as I tried to avoid her, and I ended up striking her and accidentally breaking her neck. She was verified to be dead by several witnesses. So, as far as Clark and Irene, Clark was murdered by Irene, Irene tried to murder me, and she died as I defended myself.”

  Brenda was quiet for a moment and then said, “Information regarding disposition of Clark and Irene resolved.”

  I noticed that Brenda seemed to be more relaxed and more like she ‘should’ be at times, but was still very much stiff and restrained for the most part.

  I said, “So that leaves the status ambiguity and the body anomaly. Unless the status ambiguity has been resolved by the new information.’

  She said, “Status ambiguity remains. Body anomaly dependent on resolution. Personality ambiguity recognized. Resolution dependent on status ambiguity resolution. Body anomaly resolution now depends on resolution of personality ambiguity.”

  I said, “OK. Hold my hand. I take it that you need to know what you should be now. What place you’re supposed to hold in our family. Brenda, I love you. I have always loved you. I am so sorry that you had to choose to be subject to Irene. She was wicked. Your status is that if you will, and I am begging you to, I want you to be everything that you were meant to be. Be one of the queens in my house. Be like Alice and Clarice. Let me love you as a woman, as one of my wives. As one of my princesses in a big bed like Pops and my grandmas had. Brenda I have always loved you and now I am a grown man, and if you will have me, you will be every bit as much a wife to me as any of my grandmothers were for Pops. If you will have me, I will take you to the village and get a marriage license for you and what they call a token of marriage. Having several mates is common now and I am begging you to marry me. Your status is one of the Queens of the my Kingdom. You know that I love Clarice and I want to love you in the same way. I don’t know what else to say.”

  I was in tears as I finished my plea.

  Brenda squeezed my hand and said, “Status ambiguity resolved. Joshua, do you want me to be like this or as I was?”

  I said, “Definitely not like this. I want you to be the woman that I knew and loved, but even more. I want you to be Brenda. I think that you were meant to be like grandma Buttercup and I want that.”

  Brenda said, “Personality ambiguity resolution understood. I will inform you when changes have been realized. Protocols and patterns must be examined and resolved in order. Body anomaly remains.”

  I said, “Brenda, if that means that you want to know if you should have nipples and a vagina, the answer is yes. How can we make love unless you have the fantastic, sexy, wonderful body that I have loved all my life?”

  Brenda sat up and turned to face me. She looked at me and finally smiled for the first time. She said, “Body anomaly resolution understood. If it is your desire for me to resolve the anomaly at this time, we have the ability. If you desire to wait until my personality anomaly is resolved, we may wait.’

  I said, “If we can do it now, let’s do it now! What do you mean? What do we need to do?”

  Brenda stood up and helped me to my feet. She walked to the cart that we had come in and retrieved the small medical kit. She led us back to the grassy area and sat down again. I sat beside her and watched as she opened the bag and removed a small bottle of clear liquid and handed it to me.

  She lay down on her back and said, “Apply a small amount of the solvent to the edges of the body modifications using your fingers in order to remove the anomalous configuration.”

  I assumed that the anomalous configuration must have something to do with her missing nipples. I opened the little pour spout on the bottle and recognized the faintly sweet smell that had been associated with the solvent that Clarice had used to remove my bandage earlier. I put a small amount on the first finger and thumb of my right hand and then bent to examine Brenda’s breast. I could just make out the boundary of what looked like something stuck to her skin if I looked very closely. I rubbed the solvent very gently along the edge, and sure enough, it began to let go of the skin and curl up. I kept going, applying a bit of solvent from the bottle as necessary, and after a minute or two had the covering removed and the nipple of one of Brenda’s breasts exposed.

  Wow! That was better! She really was very beautiful. The nipple was large, and hard. Pink and puckered. I hadn’t touched it directly, but she looked aroused.

  I asked her, “Brenda, does that feel good?”

  She had her eyes closed, but smiled and said, “Master, I have not been touched since your eighteenth birthday. I have recovered a partial memory of some of our times together and to answer your question, yes, that feels better than ever. I feel the air on my nipple for the first time in nearly a century. I will work very hard to resolve the personality anomaly as quickly as possible.”

  I said, “Shall I continue?”

  She smiled and said, “Yes, please. I think that your touch is therapeutic and perhaps more is better. I recommend that because the personality anomaly is still present that you restrict your touch to that which is required for the removal of unnecessary appliances at this time. I do enjoy your touch at that level.”

  I smiled and went to work slowl
y and carefully freeing Brenda’s other nipple. When both breasts were free, I checked to make sure that there was no remaining residue. As I finished, Brenda spread her legs widely, without a word. I repositioned myself, sitting between her legs, with her knees on each side of my body. The area between was smooth, but again, I found an almost imperceptible edge and, starting at the top, below her belly, I began applying the solvent that would lead to her freedom, and what I was now anticipating to be my prize.

  I worked very carefully. First along the top edge, loosening it along the seam, bit by bit. Being this careful and deliberate, taking my time touching her with just my finger, I realized just how wonderful her skin actually was. Of course, Clarice and the nymphs had the same wonderful skin, but this was the first time that I had really taken time to focus solely on it, and not on the many other things associated with making love. It was a very sensuous experience and I was very happy to be having it. So often, an unavoidable complication becomes a great joy if we slow down to appreciate it. The fact that Brenda did have these ‘doll parts’ covering her erogenous zones gave me the chance to really appreciate them and explore them visually, without the temptation to rush in and take a handful.

  Well, there was a temptation, but I was happy to resist it for her sake right now. When the top seam of the covering over her groin was loose, I moved lower, into the space between her thighs and labia. As I went still lower, Brenda raised her ankles up over her head and spread her legs in an obscenely open pose, a pose that I found very erotic and inviting. I glanced up at her face for an instant and caught her smiling at me.

  I said, “I’m making progress.”

  She smiled again and said, “You certainly are. Master, you used to be very curious about my body. I was very happy to show you. I was even more curious about your body and how it related to my own.”

  I continued to work at the edges of the covering and said, “Are you remembering? You can be as curious about me as you like. I will do anything for you that you want.”